Salon.com > Claire Vaye Watkins http://www.salon.com Thu, 23 May 2013 00:14:07 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Claire Vaye Watkins: Dynamic debut, wild back story http://www.salon.com/2012/08/08/claire_vaye_watkins_dynamic_debut_wild_backstory/ http://www.salon.com/2012/08/08/claire_vaye_watkins_dynamic_debut_wild_backstory/#comments Wed, 08 Aug 2012 18:15:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12971617 Nevada joined the Union in 1864, during the Civil War, and because of the state’s origins, its motto is Battle Born. Those words are emblazoned on the state flag, but for many Nevadans, battle born is also an ethic — the idea that from struggle, strength will rise. That same ethic shapes the 10 stories in Claire Vaye Watkins’ magnificent debut collection, "Battleborn." This collection tells a story about the American West  — the vastness of it, the cruel beauty of the landscape, and how that cruel beauty shapes and threatens to break the people who live their lives in the desert.

Watkins was raised in the desert, spent most of her life there, and grew up hearing the stories about the people and places that sprung up out of the dry earth. Then she went to school to learn how to write those stories, to bring them out of the desert landscape.

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